Heart Half-Empty
by redheadturkey
Summary: Summery: Yugi has always wished to be free of the pain in his life, and he'd thought that the puzzle his grandfather gave him would be the answer. But it would take another Millennium item holder to show him. PG-13 for some child abuse, may go up later.
1. Default Chapter

                                                Heart Half Empty

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, as much as I would like to. Not sure who the Japanese artist is, but here in the US, Warner Brothers has the rights to it.

Summery: This is NOT a song fic, though it is inspired by the song by Ty Herndon. Yugi has always wished to be free of the pain in his life, and he'd thought that the puzzle his grandfather gave him would be the answer. But it would take the friendship of another Millennium Item holder to convince him that he was strong enough to leave his past behind. 

A scream rang out into the night, coming from a house on a small suburban lane in a city called Domino. A scream of a terror so gripping none who heard it could fail to act. Including the holder of the Millennium Ankh who heard the cry from the street.

Diane Kelley shuddered as the cry reached her out on the street. It sounded like the cry Shaddi had let out just before dropping the ankh in her hand and telling her to take good care of it.  

WHAT CAN I DO, THOUGH? She thought, I AM ONLY ONE WOMAN. So she walked on, heading from the bus station where she'd parked her car to Domino City Hospital where she worked as an ER nurse.

The place was chaos as she entered, but she immediately gravitated to one small patient. The patient was a boy who looked to be no more than 10 or 11 years old, with wide, trusting violet eyes and spiky hair that was dark brown or maybe even black in the back, a flaming crimson in the middle, with brilliant true blond bangs. 

Then, her eyes flew to the puzzle on the broken chain. It was gold and shaped like a pyramid, with an odd, Egyptian artifact looking sort of eye in the top. 

She gasped.  IT'S THE MILLENNIUM PUZZLE. . .WHICH MUST MEAN THIS BOY IS YUGI MOUTO! 

He looked up to her, straight into the gentle, jewel-like blue eyes, and suddenly knew he could trust her. Then he had the same shock of recognition as he spotted the ankh pendant she wore. 

Diane bent over him, growling angrily at the bruises she saw all over him, including the two fresh welts on his eye and chin. 

Yugi winced as another sharp pain tore through his chest from his two broken ribs. Takada Mouto had done more damage this time than he ever had. Then, with a sigh, he let the darkness claim him. 

Later, after the emergency room doctors had patched him up as well as they could, Diane sighed. The boy would need surgery to repair the lung his rib had punctured, and if things were as she thought they were, Yugi's father would not be amenable to that. 

"Diane" a rich, refined tenor rang out from behind her, "Shouldn't you be heading home?"

"Good evening, Seto," she replied, "I know I should be, but Angela is asleep by now, and with Mike no longer there I have nothing else to go home to, ne?"

"And what thought is it you hold in that pretty head of yours?" Seto smiled, dark eyes twinkling, running his hands through his straw-colored, collar-length hair. "You know I can always tell when you're planning something."

She giggled, then her face went deadly serious. "I was contemplating what I was going to do about the situation young Yugi here has found himself in."

"What can you do? Takada" it seemed as if the 13-year-old head of Kaiba Corporation fairly SPAT the name, "is his father. And though we all know what is going on, considering how valued a member of the community the man is, proving it is going to prove quite difficult, I'm afraid."


	2. Chapter 2

Diane nods grimly. "You are right of course. . .but it makes me so angry. He doesn't deserve this. Any word on when his Grandfather's custody hearing will be yet?"

Seto Kaiba shakes his head. "And without some help from big shots, it's unlikely he'll win, anyway."

Diane sighs. "Again you're right. . .I hate that you always seem to be."

Then, a shrill alarm sounded, along with the announcement "Emergency personnel to room 329 stat, Code Blue."

Diane and Seto gasped in chorus. "That's-"

Seto cut her off. "Yugi's room, yeah, let's move!"

The two entered to find doctors bent over the boy while a nurse wheeled in the crash cart, The chaos was accompanied by the high-pitched screech of the vital signs monitor's alarm. 

Diane couldn't help right now, and she knew it. . .she was off the clock, and out of uniform. So she did the only thing she COULD do, prayed as fervently as she ever had. 

Finally, the monitor stopped emitting its screeching tone, and slowly the heartbeat returned to normal. 

As the doctors left, she knelt next to his bed and made a silent vow. "I will get you out of that home and into one where you can feel safe and loved."

And so began the quest in the court system to save a young boy's life and sanity. 

Yugi's recovery was slow and rocky, especially with the lung having to heal on its own. Diane knew it was likely he'd be afflicted with a mild form of asthma from it, which made it even more imperative that a better home be found for him. So it was that three days after Yugi was admitted to the hospital Diane and Yugi's grandfather stood in front of a judge, trying to get Sugoroku custody. 

"I am sorry, Mr. Mouto, but without further evidence, there's nothing I can legally do. The boy will have to return to his parents."


	3. Chapter 3

Diane was practically shaking with rage when she strode back into Yugi's room. She picked up the puzzle, and scraping out the extra chain she'd placed aside for her own Item, placed the puzzle on the chain, fastening it about the boy's neck.  A bright light surrounded him, and a larger, older form overshadowed him, the narrower eyes, reddish-violet, opening with a pained gasp.

"What has happened here? The last thing I remember is the puzzle being yanked from my Aibou's neck."

Diane, having never had an encounter with the guardian of her own Item, felt her eyes widen in shock. "Who are you? WHAT are you?"

The boy, who appeared to be perhaps 16, looked to the ankh hanging from her neck. "You hold a Millennium Item, and know not who I am?"

Then, she remembered the stories of Yugi's duels, how another always seemed to take his form during the most critical moments, and whispered, "You are the one who dueled for him against Kaiba and Pegasus."

The boy nodded, smiling in something like approval. "You have intelligence and a shrewd wit, Ma'am. Yes, I am he. You may call me Yami, for I am the darkness and shadows to Yugi's light."

Diane bowed her head. "I tried to get a better home for Yugi. . .and I failed. The judge sent him back to his parents."

Yami, despite himself, found his hand lifting her chin and his own reddish-purple eyes staring into those sad blue ones. "You did everything you could. . .now you let me take care of this." 

She did not ask what he had planned, for she already knew. The stories of how some of Yugi's adversaries had been traumatized and in some cases killed were widely known in Duelist circles. And though she was a poor duelist at best, she did keep her ears open, always beating the chaff of the gossip away to find that kernel of truth within. Yugi, being not much older than her own oldest child, was the duelist whose career she had followed most closely. 

Then, she had an idea. "Yami, wasn't Takada a duelist once?"

Yami nodded. "In fact, I think that is where some of his problems with Yugi stem from. Yugi has become more skilled even at ten than Takada could ever HOPE to be, even at the height of his talent."

"Could you. . .teach me, then, Yami? Teach me what you know, and I will challenge Takada to one last duel. If he wins, I will let you do as you wish, telling him Yugi is the prize. If I win, Yugi goes to his Grandfather, no further argument. Both achieve the desired result, only my way creates fewer questions and future problems for Yugi."

Yami peered out the window thoughtfully. Outside, the first winter snow had begun falling; reminding him again how close it was to Christmas, and making him think of how wonderful a gift Yugi's freedom would be to him. Then, he turned to the woman who stood silently next to him, and nodded. "Agreed."

Diane returned home to find her two children waiting up for her, Angela's deep-set blue eyes sparking in what appeared to be more than a slight bit of annoyance.

"Mom," the red-haired child crossed her arms, stretching to take advantage of every inch of her more-than-average height, "you were supposed to have been home two hours ago. Marsha crashed out on the couch."

Diane peered over at the 16 year old babysitter, and then turned back to her 9-year-old daughter, speaking in a soothing tone. "You won't be so upset when I tell you who I treated tonight."

Angela and Aaron both gave her a look of piqued interest. They were both rather good Duelists themselves, and knew their mother followed the careers of their competition closely. "Well, Mom," Aaron piped up, "are you gonna tell us, or are we gonna hafta guess?"

Diane smiled outrageously, then answered "Yugi Mouto."

Both gasped in amazement. Yugi was near-legend in dueling circles, and the two could not have been more astounded if their mother had told them she had met Jesus Christ himself.

"Can you take us to meet him? Please, Mom?" Angela gave Diane the most pitifully puppy-dog look the widowed mother had ever seen.

Diane nodded, "Tomorrow evening. But you need to be very gentle with him, understood? He was really injured badly, and is still quite weak."

Aaron ran his hands through his almost white-blond, close-cropped hair and nodded. "We promise, Mom, don't we, sis?"

Angela nodded to her 7-year-old brother, "You bet we do."

The next evening came quickly, and Diane grinned as her son and daughter jabbered in the back seat during the trip to see their idol. She was on one of her rare off-call nights, and she planned to simply enjoy this time with her children.


End file.
